The Rapporteurs were NOMBASA TSENGWA, Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, South Africa, and ADRIAN DAVIS, Department for International Development, United Kingdom. The Conference was organised in cooperation with the World Bank and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs on 24-26th April, 2002 in Paris. The report will be one of the documents supporting discussion at the GEF Ministerial Rountable on 'Financing Environment and Sustainable Development' that will be held in Bali, on 4th June, 2002.

OBJECTIVES

Within the perspective of the preparatory process for the World Summit on Sustainable Development the OECD, together with co-operating international institutions, organised an international conference to examine:

- trends in environmental finance since Rio and key challenges for the future; - strengthening international partnership for financing environmental dimension of sustainable development - opportunities to improve the management of domestic public environmental expenditure; - public policies and market-based initiatives for harnessing private finance for the environmental dimension of sustainable development.

BACKGROUND OF THE CONFERENCE

Finance was one of the most controversial issues at the Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and its follow-up in the UN Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) and the 1997 Special Session of the UN General Assembly. It continues to be a fundamental issue in discussions of "common but differentiated" responsibilities for the global environment and will no doubt be a major topic for discussion at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in August/September 2002.

OECD's Global Forum on Sustainable Development (GFSD), which was established by the Organisation's Committee for Co-operation with Non-Members in 2001, provided an input to the WSSD by organising a Conference which examined financing the environmental dimension of sustainable development. OECD's Environment Directorateco-ordinated preparations of the Conference in co-operation with other Directorates, including the Directorate for Fiscal, Financial and Enterprise Affairs, the Directorate for Development Co-operation, the Public Management Service and the International Energy Agency. The Conference was organised in co-operation with UN/DESA and the World Bank.

VALUE-ADDED AND SCOPE

The proposed meeting was integrated into the series of events devoted to finance, development and environment scheduled before the WSSD in Johannesburg. A report from the GFSD Conference will be forwarded to the final Preparatory meeting for the WSSD that will take place in Indonesia in May/June, 2002.

The UN Conference on Financing for Development held in Mexico in March 2002 provided a comprehensive assessment of the broad array of issues related to financing development. The GFSD Conference built on this by focusing on financing the environmental dimension of sustainable development with an emphasis on managing domestic public funds and attracting external public and private financial flows. Close co-operation and synergy is also ensured with the two ministerial Round Tables on Financing the Environment and Sustainable Development, organised by the Global Environmental Facility, held on17-18th March (in Mexico, conjunction with the Financing for Development conference) and 4th June 2002 (in Indonesia, in conjunction with the final Preparatory Committee for the WSSD). The GFSD Conference also built on the UNEP Finance Initiatives Global Roundtable on Finance and Sustainability, held on14-15th March, 2002 in Rio de Janeiro. Another important dimension of this conferencewas to examine financial issues related to the conclusions of the Bonn International Conference on Freshwater that took place in 2001.

TIMING, VENUE AND PARTICIPATION

The GFSD Conferencefacilitated a dialogue between OECD Members and non-Members on financing the environmental dimension of sustainable development. It had an analytical rather than political character. It primarily engaged a broad range of policy advisors and analysts from the public sector as well as non-government organisation, international and national think tanks and the private sector in order to clarify some of the key environmental finance issues that will be discussed at WSSD. Click here to view the list of participants .